After months of course work, revision and the stress of exams, the results have arrived.

Across Bristol and the surrounding area, 18-year-olds can now make firm plans for their next step. Many will go on to universities, some will begin careers straight away.

But for each of them, A-level results mark a turning point in their lives. Traditional school has ended and they are venturing out into the wider world.

And they should do so with pride and confidence.

Each year people will argue that A-levels are easier than they used to be. Certainly the way A-levels are assessed has changed. But now students are judged not merely on two papers at the end of two years of study but throughout that course.

In a sense they are being constantly examined throughout their A-levels.

And that is anything but easy.

Add to that the pressures that modern-day teenagers face.

The weight of expectation upon them is far greater than their parents' generation faced.

In many ways we want them to grow up earlier, to take responsibility at a younger age and to plan for the future sooner.

When they are barely into their teens they are faced with organising work experience and choosing options for GCSE exams.

So by the time they reach A-levels, they will have been living with a lot of expectations on their shoulders for some time.

The fact that so many of them do well is tremendous.

In a few weeks many of them will be leaving to live away for the first time and making many of their own decisions.

It is a real time of change.

For now though they can at last afford to relax and reflect on what they have done with a genuine sense of achievement.